Investigation of Fethiye-Marmaris Bay (SW Anatolia): Seismic and morphologic evidences from the missing link between the Pliny Trench and the Fethiye-Burdur Fault Zone

New (2009) multi-beam bathymetric and previously published seismic reflection data from the NE-SW-oriented Fethiye Bay and the neighboring N-S-oriented Marmaris Bay off SW Anatolia were evaluated in order to interpret the seafloor morphology in terms of the currently still active regional tectonic setting. This area lies between the Pliny Trench, which constitutes the eastern sector of the subduction zone between the African and Eurasian plates in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Fethiye-Burdur Fault Zone of the Anatolian Plate. The bathymetric data document the very narrow shelf of the Anatolian coast, a submarine plain between the island of Rhodes and Marmaris Bay, and a large canyon connecting the abyssal floor of the Rhodes Basin with Fethiye Bay. The latter are here referred to as the Marmaris Plain and Fethiye Canyon, respectively. Several active and inactive faults have been identified. Inactive faults (faults f1) delineate a buried basin beneath the Marmaris Plain, here referred to as the Marmaris Basin. Other faults that affect all stratigraphic units are interpreted as being active. Of these, the NE-SW-oriented Marmaris Fault Zone located on the Marmaris Plain is interpreted as a transtensional fault zone in the seismic and bathymetric data. The transtensional character of this fault zone and associated normal faults (faults f3) on the Marmaris Plain correlates well with the Fethiye-Burdur Fault Zone on land. Another important fault zone (f4) occurs along the Fethiye Canyon, forming the northeastern extension of the Pliny Trench. The transpressional character of faults f4 inferred from the seismic data is well correlated with the compressional structures along the Pliny Trench in the Rhodes Basin and its vicinity. These observations suggest that the Marmaris Fault Zone and faults f3 have evolved independently of faults f4. The evidence for this missing link between the Pliny Trench and the Fethiye-Burdur Fault Zone implies possible kinematic problems in this tectonic zone that deserve further detailed studies. Notably, several active channels and submarine landslides interpreted as having been triggered by ongoing faulting attest to substantial present-day sediment transport from the coast into the Rhodes Basin.